33. The Fake Escape Network
Using the alias “Dr. Eugene”, Marcel Petiot claimed to have an escape route to get those wanted by the Nazis or the collaborationist Vichy French government to safety outside of France. For payment of 25,000 francs per person, “Dr. Eugene” promised to get those in hiding to Argentina or other South American countries, via an escape route that went through Portugal.
There was no escape route. Accomplices led victims desperate to escape the Germans – particularly Jews, but also Resistance members and ordinary criminals – to Petiot’s house. There, he told them that Argentina required that immigrants be inoculated against diseases. Petiot then injected them, not with a vaccine, but with cyanide. In addition to the payment already received, the ghoulish ring seized whatever other valuable the victims had. They then destroyed their corpses in Petiot’s basement, buried them on his property, or disposed of them elsewhere.